Censoring the Internet

Imagine that you have a large homework assignment based on research that you have to do. You hurry home, or to the nearest library, and you go straight to the computer. You open the Internet Explorer and go to the page in which you will find most information on your assignment, only to find that the web page has been banned and completely abolished. You look on several other sites only to come across the same obstacle. After conducting a survey to 100 people at ELAC, I found out that out of those 100 people (50 men and 50 women), 37 students face this problem due to either Parental Control programs or Censorship applications. Just doing research for this speech on-line, I came across various sites that were either banned or discontinued. We should not censor the Internet!

Today I will tell you the reasons why Internet censorship should not be enforced, how Parental Control programs do more than just block adult content, how some censorship followers make hypocritical decisions, how it violates the First Amendment of the Constitution, and what you can do to prevent the inappropriate content from appearing on your screen in front of family members or children.

In a 1997 study by Robert Zakon, the amount of websites or domains went up by One Million, six hundred thousand within ten years between 1990 to 1997. By 2008, the number of domains went up by billions worldwide. The more the Internet expanded, the higher Internet content was exposed to children, teens, and adults alike.

Suspiciously, Parental Control programs block more than just pornography and vulgar content. After extensive research I found that many Parental Control programs exist, more than I ever knew, and all of those applications work, don't get me wrong. However, about 96% of those applications have flaws.

CyberSitter, one of the many Parental Control programs offered by the RIAA (Recording Industry of America Association), just like all other programs, has a censor that detects certain content or words. When it detects those words, it blocks the site.

The Cybersitter Control program blocks all these words: "sexual," "safe sex," "have sex," "naughty," "violence," "fairy," "lesbian," "witch," "Jehovah's Witnesses," and "shaman." Ironically, the program will not ban the words "gay" and "sex."

Did you know that every single program that enforces censorship on the Internet was created by right-wing conservatives? Parental Control programs such as Net Nanny and CyberPatrol coincidentally block some websites without any profanity or pornography; those websites happen to be democrat or liberal websites like barackobama.com and Blue Ribbon Anti-Censorship sites.

Even though many people use the Internet for MySpace, Facebook, blogs, Hi5, Twitter, and so many other social networks, there are always those radical extremists that believe their own opinion is the only correct one. However we can't look at the issue of Internet censorship as black and white, all or nothing.

Pro-Censorship Internet users, composed largely of religious folks and/or right-wing conservatives, argue with the fact that pornography, violence, harsh language, and dangerous ideals being expressed on the Internet are not fully abolished. Unfortunately, this is what the Internet is known for, but all this was not the Internet's intended purpose; however, various pro-censorship fanatics seem to follow ironic or hypocritical practices.

Roy Lister, one pro-censorship religious fanatic, has a website that cites passages from the bible, addressing porn viewers as "abominable" and "perverted sodomites". What he doesn't know is that censorship tactics deem religious material as inappropriate.

In October 2006, 13 yr old Megan Meier hung herself in her room after being rejected by a boy in MySpace with whom she had been communicating with for over a month. Roy Lister's site contained gruesome pictures of the girl's corpse. A few months after that story with the pictures was in Lister's page, the site was banned and discontinued from the World Wide Web

I am sure many of you are coming across a page saying "This URL could not be found" a lot more often lately. This is a sign of censorship expanding throughout the World Wide Web. One question that may come up in people's minds is: "What about certain instructions that can be fatal to people's lives, like constructing bombs?" Well believe it or not, since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, weapons and materials for weapons have been harder to obtain, on the Internet or in any shops. In many cases, it's not the Internet that the blame should go towards; it's the parents, guardians, or family members.

The United States Constitution guarantees rights to every American Citizen. As of January 2009, there are 27 Amendments to that constitution, more than half of which were written after 1791, the year the Bill of Rights was adopted into the country. The VERY FIRST Amendment in the US Constitution states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press."

This guarantees freedom of speech to all American Citizens. The greatest gift America has given to the world is the concept of free speech, and the right to free speech includes written free speech, therefore including the World Wide Web.

Some people make take the technical road and say "The Internet is mentioned nowhere in the Constitution." However, the first amendment was written to protect one's right to free speech and ideas anywhere.

Anywhere you look on-line, any website, you will find opinions. Movements can be started using the Internet, and by now the Internet is so vast and full of opinions that even if censorship were enforced, it would be virtually impossible to silence over one billion minds.

Iran's protests against the "coincidental" reelection of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei have been largely fueled using the Internet. This is causing Khamenei to attempt a complete control and ban of all Internet in Iran, yet only one site remains to be stopped because of its accessibility and is still being used for communication and outrage of opinions throughout Iran. That website is Twitter. Although the US Constitution may not apply to most Iranians, some Iranian Americans are practicing their right to free speech by exposing the cruelty in Iran to Americans everywhere. If the Internet is regulated and/or censored, then we would be violating a constitutional right that our ancestors fought so hard for.

"What about the children?" you may be asking. Possibly the most controversial topic in the discussion of Internet censorship is the issue of children seeing something inappropriate or something that they should not be exposed to just yet.

Well, Parental Control programs are always an option, even though most of those programs may have flaws, but there are several other options to parental control

I have known 12 year olds that already know not to look into pornography or any offensive material, and whenever they happen to accidentally go into that type of page, they get scared and click out as fast as they can. I asked 11 year old Mike from my elementary school while I was volunteering "How do you know that those kinds of sites are bad?" and he responded "because my mommy said that if I saw that I will have nightmares and something bad will happen to my head!" Knowing he meant his brain, or psychological development, I realized that good parenting can be a factor in protecting children from offensive material. Of course, there's a difference between a parent that talks with his/her child every day and a parent that just feeds the child and goes to watch television.

Another way of preventing "Childhood Internet Trauma" is...well just look at the Internet browser. Every Internet browser has a tool in which you can block certain websites as opposed to a conservative program that bans anything with humanitarian opinion. After more extensive research, studies show that using the browser tool puts the owner of the computer in much more control over what comes on screen and what doesn't.

Possibly the most effective way to control your child into not looking up offensive material is good parenting. If you watch Scarface with your 2-year-old in your arms, chances are that he/she will be going into sites that he/she knows they shouldn't. Also, talking with your child, even a little, every day can make a huge difference not only in Internet browsing, but in life decisions.

The unfortunate suicide of Megan Meier, as I mentioned earlier, could have been easily prevented had the parents simply talked to Megan. According to reports, Megan suffered from depression before meeting Josh, the guy that rejected her on MySpace. Where were her parents when Megan was on-line? Where were they when she was rejected? Did they not notice any unusual behaviors from Megan before her suicide? What causes parents to be so detached from their children that they don't even pay attention to what their child suffering from depression is doing on a social network like MySpace? I'll tell you this: Internet censorship cannot cure a child's anxiety. A life could have been saved by asking simple questions: "Are you ok?" or "How are you?"

In Conclusion, just remember that you have a right to free speech in this country as an American citizen. Your opinion matters anywhere: in person, in school, on the streets, or on the web. Also remember this: be careful about what you use to protect children or loved ones; a simple act to protect them might lead to them never being able to express opinions.

Laws start small, and every law today once started as an idea. If the Internet begins being censored today, then tomorrow it can be schools not allowing students to speak their minds, and the next day it may be people getting arrested for thinking thoughts against government decisions. Censorship is not the way to change the world for the better, because we cannot change others before first changing ourselves.